A Few Weeks In...

Things have been going smoothly the first few weeks at site. It’s nice to start getting into a groove, though I haven’t really had a typical routine since the school had the Form 4 graduation last week, now midterm exams, and next week will be break. I only taught one day, and it was just a review for the midterm. I made the exam for my Form 3 math class, without really knowing what format or material to use since I just got here. But I have a book of all old NECTA exam problems (the big and really only important test for all 4 years of school), so I just pulled ones out of there and used the same format and all. After seeing some of the other teachers’ tests now, I realized that it is extremely long and will probably be very difficult. But I think it will still be good experience for them to get used to what the NECTA will be like. I think most of the time school exams are a lot easier than the national exams, and then the students are caught off-guard when they take them.

Most kids in Tanzania don’t like math and think it is too difficult even before really trying. There was a mock NECTA exam earlier in the year at my school and of 120 Form 2 students, 18 passed the math section (you only need a 21% to pass), so there’s plenty of improvement that can be made! Of course there are some who are exceptions. We had a little review session the other night with some of the kids who like math, one of which has apparently earned the title of “King of Mathematics.” I must say he is worthy. It was really nice and refreshing to see the students that really want to learn. Sometimes in a classroom of 60 students, maybe half of which can understand half of what you’re saying in English, it can be a bit discouraging. But I know I can’t teach to have them all master the material or we wouldn’t get through anything.

It’s interesting because there are a lot of older students here than I had at my internship school. Some students, if they don’t do as well as they’d like on the exams, will repeat Forms 3 and 4 to try and score higher. So some of my students are as old or older than me!

Last Friday was the Form 4 graduation (they graduate early to prepare for exams in October, the rest have class until Dec). It was a really big ceremony, a bunch of parents came in from all over the country. The students made and performed all their own songs and dances and comedy skits, it was much more fun than I remember my high school graduation being. Afterward there was a dance in the big dining hall building. There are a few things that apparently are just immune to cultural differences, and high school dances are one of them. Brought back memories…although I have to say there are some fancy dance moves that I’ve never seen in America. And I was once again disappointed at the lack of disco music on the playlist.

I’ve been cleaning up and fixing up my house quite a bit. Tried to fashion a closet out of string and a mosquito net, but it came crashing down before long. I did make a nice tool rack on the back of my kitchen door, and still plan to try and build some furniture at some point. I’m paying a neighbor to cook rice and beans for me everyday, but also have an impressive streak going of consecutive days having made guacamole – maybe there’s a Guinness record to be broken. I haven’t gotten tired of eating the same food all the time yet. Credit that to my secret ingredient- chili sauce- that makes everything 10x better. I don’t know what they do differently to it here, but they certainly got that one right.

I also just bought some seeds to try and grow tomatoes and cabbage in the little fenced garden next to my house. Someone used it at some point in the past, but not recently, so I’m gonna try and revive it. You have to plan it right though usually because there are rainy and dry seasons which dictate how well things grow. We’re in the dry season now (today I felt a slight drizzle for the first time since coming) but I think it will be ending soon. I can’t wait, plus then all the hills around me will be that much more green and beautiful! They just did a controlled burn of the corn fields behind my house yesterday, and the wind blew all the ash into my courtyard so it looked like a volcano had just erupted.

It’s still strange to think about spending 2 years here at site, but I know the time will fly by, especially when I start teaching full-time. I’m really glad we have a very good staff of teachers at the school, they are all easy to get along with and seem like they care about their jobs a lot. We’ll see how they react when I show up to teach in my orange suit…then I’ll know if they can be my friends.